Changes to RAHB Rule and Regulation 10 – 10.03 and MLS® Policies and MLS® Marketing 1 and 8

RAHB Rule and Regulation, Section 10 Advertising – 10.03

All RAHB members must comply with all City Bylaws when placing signs on properties.  As each Municipality has their own specific times and locations, this amendment clearly outlines that all signs placed on properties must comply with all Municipal and Provincial sign legislation.

10.03      Signs giving notice of sale, rent, lease, development, exchange or open house shall not be placed on any property by more than one Brokerage, unless authorized by the Seller. Signs may only be erected on locations that conform with municipal and provincial sign legislation, all applicable laws, regulations, codes and bylaws. A Member shall not interfere with another Brokerage’s sign, unless such property is subsequently listed by said Member.

If a written complaint is received by RAHB, it is forwarded to the Professional Standards Committee for an investigation. Following an investigation by the Professional Standards Committee, the matter may be forwarded to a Discipline Hearing Panel. At a Discipline Hearing, the member may be fined a financial penalty for non-compliance of RAHB MLS® Rules and Regulations.

RAHB’s MLS® Marketing Options Policies

Some general housekeeping changes were made to RAHB’s MLS® Marketing Options Policies #1 and #8 as shown below:

  1. Members may list:
  • A property on the MLS® system on as up to 5 different property information forms types with only one contract being required; the appropriate listing fee for each Property Information Form will apply; or
  • Members may list a commercial property on multiple Commercial Property Information Forms with only one contract required provided each form has a different “Commercial Property Type” selected.
  1. Multiple Contracts and PIF’s Single Property; when a Sale is being reported on a listing, all additional listings must be cancelled by way of a Cancellation of Listing Agreement signed by the Seller and Broker. The cancellation must be received by RAHB processed the same day as the report of sale or a $100 fine will be levied to the member for each listing. This includes listings offered for sale and lease.

Should you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help desk at 905.667.4650 or support@rahb.ca

New MLS® Policy and Change to the Cooperating Brokerage Commission Field

The current Cooperating Brokerage Commission field allows up to 22 characters.  Beginning on May 23, 2019, the field will be expanded to allow up to 200 characters. This change is being made to ensure the cooperating brokerage commission data is available for Virtual Office Websites (VOWs), as set out by the Competition Tribunal Order.
Along with the change to the number of characters allowed in this field, the Board of Directors have approved the following new MLS® policy that will also take effect on May 23, 2019 as follows:
Miscellaneous
23. The Cooperating Commission field must contain either a dollar amount and or a percentage. “See Remarks” is not acceptable. Any additional comments or details pertaining to the cooperating brokerage commission must be entered in the Cooperating Commission Comments field, not the REALTOR® remarks.
This means on May 23, 2019, any current active listings on the MLS® system and any new listings entered should ensure the cooperating brokerage commission is appearing ONLY in the “Commission to Cooperating Brokerage” field, not in the REALTOR® remarks.  Not following the new MLS® policy will mean your listing may not be in compliance with the Competition Tribunal Order. 

Listings Made Simple – Signing Reports In Matrix

Did you know you can generate a Property Information Form (PIF) from data loaded into Matrix? This eliminates the need to fill out a standard RAHB MLS® Property Information Form.

Please note, however, that this replaces only the Property Information Form. All other necessary forms (OREA Form 200 Listing Agreement, OREA Form 810 Working With A REALTOR®, etc.) will still be required.

To get a Matrix-generated PIF, you will use a report called REALTOR® Full with Tabs and Signature.  Here’s how:

1. Use the Matrix Input function to enter all listing data as you normally would. If you do not have Broker Load access, your office will need to do this for you.

(Here is a video tutorial on how to enter listings in Matrix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeP8xJIngvk)

 

2. Once all listing data has been entered, save the listing as incomplete by clicking on the Save as Incomplete button, located at the bottom left corner of the screen. This will save the listing with Incoming status. Do not submit the listing at this point!

 

 

 

 

3. If you are printing the PIF immediately after saving the incomplete listing, click on the MLS® number on the Input Succeeded screen, which appears immediately after you click Save as Incomplete.

If you are returning to Matrix, the incomplete listing can be retrieved by going to My Matrix > My Listings, and selecting My Incomplete Listings from the Show Click on the MLS® number to open the listing.

 

4. With the listing open, select REALTOR® Full with Signature from the Display menu.

5. This will generate a report that can be signed by your seller, in lieu of a standard Property Information Form. Click Print to display the list of print options. Be sure to select all tabs that apply to your listing, as your seller will need to sign all of them.  From here, you can click on either Print, Print to PDF, or Email PDF, depending upon your preference.

Each tab will have a signature and date lines at the bottom, which are to be signed by your seller prior to activating the listing.

After your seller signs the forms, return to your incomplete listings and activate the listing.  Click the Edit button, and submit the listing from the familiar data entry screen.

Please feel free to contact the RAHB MLS® Department with any questions – 905.667.4650 or support@rahb.ca.

Become Familiar with the New WEBForms®!

CREA will be discontinuing their WEBForms® Classic version as of Wednesday, August 8, 2018.

To prepare for the change to the new version of WEBForms®, why not begin using it now?  It’s easy to find the new site: when you go to WEBForms® Classic, you will see the notice shown below – just click on the red button that says Try the new version of CREA WEBFORMS® now! and you will be redirected to the site.

 

 

Note: This article was updated on July 18 to reflect the new date of August 8 for the discontinuation of WEBForms® “Classic”.

OREA Launches New Forms Tutorials

OREA has just launched a new tutorial series to provide you with a practical guide to using OREA Standard Forms and Clauses.

These new tutorials are designed to be relevant and informative, with tips you can apply to your business immediately.

Now available is a two-part mini-series that drills down into specific areas of OREA Form 100 Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

Part 1 covers:
Deposit section information
Clause 1 – Irrevocability
Clause 3 – Notices
Confirmation of Acceptance section

Part 2 covers:
Property description
Clause 4 – Chattels Included
Clause 5 – Fixtures Excluded
Clause 6 – Rental Items
Clause 8 – Title Search
The Schedule, including clause structure and cautions

Be sure to check OREA’s Standard Forms landing page for new tutorials and other updated resources.

OREA Tutorials

 

Please note: all access to Standard Form resources is through member login.

 

Matrix Tip: Sending Listings To Other REALTORS®, Mortgage Brokers, etc.

You may occasionally find it necessary to send a listing to someone who is not your client – this could be a mortgage broker or a non-RAHB REALTOR® who would like to submit an offer on your seller’s property.  These parties would require the REALTOR® Full report, but all of the functionality of the client portal would be unnecessary to them.  There is a way to give them exactly what they need, without you having to set them up as a client.

Here is what you do…

1. Bring up the listing.  Go to My Matrix > My Listings, select My Active Listings from the Show: drop down menu, and click on the MLS® number.

 

2. Click on the MLS® number for the listing in question. This will bring up REALTOR® Full.  Click Print.

 

3. Click E-Mail PDF. Make sure that all appropriate tabs are checked off.  This is how you will ensure that the recipient has all required information.

4. Complete the e-mail form, and click Send.

That’s all there is to it!  This will send a link to your recipient which, when clicked, will start a download of the listing.  This way, they have all of the information they need, without taking up space in your client list.

Please feel free to contact the RAHB MLS® Department with any questions – 905.667.4650 or support@rahb.ca.

ShowingTime Update: Message Centre

ShowingTime has recently added instant messaging to their program.  This will allow you to send and receive messages to and from any RAHB member.  This is similar to many online messaging platforms – Facebook, for example – and is available both from the desktop site and from the app.

From the desktop view, you can access the message centre in two ways.

  • From the main menu
  • From the message inbox

To access your messages from the mobile app, click the icon in the upper right corner.

Here you will see a list of all the messages you are involved in. You can search for a particular message by name if you want.

Responding to a message is done in real time. The person you are chatting with will be able to respond to your conversation right away.  

Creating a Message

To create a new message, click on the + sign.

You can choose to search for a fellow RAHB member::

Or search by listing:

If you send a message to a listing and there is a co-listing agent assigned to the listing, your message will automatically be sent to them as well.

Can I send a message before I schedule?

Yes. Once you pull up the scheduling screen you can send a message to the listing salesperson or broker.

This will open a pop-up window on your desktop. Please make sure you allow pop-up windows in your browser’s settings.

Please contact the RAHB MLS® Department with any questions – 905.667.4650 or support@rahb.ca.

Update Your Profile in the New Member Portal!

When you go to RAHB Education/Account Services, review your profile information and make sure your information is complete and up-to-date. You can edit your member profile information whenever you have a change of address, new website URL, new e-mail address, etc. It’s easy!

When you are in RAHB Education/Education Account Services home page, look for your member profile on the left-hand side of the page.

If information is missing, incomplete or incorrect, click on the Edit button to the right of the My Profile title:

Alternately, you could point to the Member button on the home page header and select My Profile.

Then go through your personal information listed in the fields presented to you, add or update information and then click on Update at the bottom of the page.

Please note that fields marked with an asterisk – which will all be populated for you – are mandatory; you can change the information in the field, but you cannot remove information or leave it blank.

If you have questions about how to change your information on the new Member Portal, contact Justin Hayes at the RAHB office at 905.529.8101 x250.

New in Matrix – Escape Clauses Now Highlighted on REALTOR® Single Line

A new column header titled EscCl (“Escape Clause”) has been added to the REALTOR® Single Line view for all property types.

This will allow you to see if Active CS properties have an escape clause. Previously, you would have had to open a REALTOR® Full display to see this additional information.

If you have any questions regarding this addition, please call the MLS® Department at 905.667.4650.

 

Searching for Townhouses and Row Units

When you search for townhomes, select the picks Townhouse and Attached/Row to obtain the best results.  If you select only Townhouse or only Attached/Row, you may be missing some listing results.

What’s the difference?  Here are the descriptions for both these picks:

Rowhouses are freehold, residential properties that are attached on one or two sides, often found in older neighbourhoods. These units do not have a condo corporation, therefore no condo fees are associated with this property; the owner is responsible for the maintenance inside and outside of their property.

Townhouses are residential properties having two or more floors and attached to other similar units via common walls. They can also be “two on a lot” homes without subdividing the land nor attaching the houses, as there are many townhomes that are not built “all in a row” but rather as four or six around a centre courtyard. Townhouses are often used in both planned unit developments and condominium developments. A townhouse may or may not be a condo, and have associated fees.